When adding links to straws or forum posts, try not to use links from sites that require people to have an account and to be logged in to access those files. If you do use such links, while they will work for you, they won't work for anybody who does not have an account and is not logged in. Examples are using links to company announcements within NABTrade and Commsec. Don't use those. They won't work for the vast majority of Strawman.com users.
The best way to include links is to use sites that do NOT have log-in requirements. In the case of ASX announcements - that means use either the ASX site or the site of the individual company.
The ASX site is free, is available to everybody, and you don't need to have an account, or to be logged in to use it. Therefore, any links to anything within asx.com.au will work for everybody.
Just go to:
And type your company code in (top right, in the search box), then when the company details come up, scroll down for their announcements, then copy the link and then paste it into your Strawman.com straw or forum post.
If you've previously used links to sites that have log-in requirements (like NABTrade or Commsec) you can edit straws or forum posts that you've already completed at any time to fix those bad links.
Many companies have their own websites from which you can also obtain links, however many of those links will just take you back to the ASX site, so I find that using asx.com.au to source all of my company announcement links is always the quickest and easiest method, and it works for everybody.
When inserting links, you can just insert them as text and then people can copy and paste that link into a tab in their web browser.
OR you can use the link tool that Strawman.com provides. It is the icon that looks like a chain link near the right side of the formatting options at the top of the text box. The one on the far right is the "remove link" tool which can be used to turn a link back into ordinary text. It has a small "x" over the chain link icon. The one without that "x" is the link tool. If you click on that link icon after you have positioned the cursor where you want the link to appear (within your straw or forum post) then you'll get a pop-up box that asks you for four things. The only two you need to worry about are "Display Text" at the top, and "URL" at the bottom right. You paste the link into that "URL" box in the bottom right. If you leave the "Display Text" box blank, then Strawman.com will display the link. If the link is particularly long, or if you want to explain what the link is for, then type or paste a description into the "Display Text" field. That text will be displayed, but the underlying link will be used. That's it.
What I do usually is copy the ASX announcement description into "Display Text" and copy the link to "URL".
The default Protocol is "http://" which seems to work for ALL links. However, one of the "Protocol" options is "https://" - for secure sites (has that added letter "s" in it). ASX.com.au is a secure protocol site - it uses the https:// protocol (with the "s"), however if you use the default "http://" protocol (with NO "s"), it works exactly the same - you will see that the URL you end up at has "https://" at the beginning (secure, with the "s"), not "http://". So I have found there is no point in changing the "Protocol" setting there within Strawman.com because if the site is secure, that's where you end up anyway, regardless of whether you use the "s" in the link or not, so I ignore that "Protocol" box entirely.
More information: https://www.globalsign.com/en/blog/the-difference-between-http-and-https
So, with that link I just used the bottom right "URL" box after clicking on the "link" tool (the chain link icon). If I also type "Difference between http and https" into the "Display Text" box, you get the exact same link, but now it looks like this:
Difference between http and https
Most people are probably all over all of this already, however for those who weren't, I hope it helps.
Once again, don't worry about the http/https thing, if the site is secure (https) that's where the link will take you, regardless of whether you use http or https. The only two fields within the link tool you need to worry about are the first (Display Text) and the last (URL). And if you want the link to look exactly as you would type it (if you were typing it straight into your web browser), then you don't need to worry about the "Display Text" field either, just use the last (URL) field.
Attaching files
Another thing you can do (if you want to) is attach files to your straws. You can NOT do this in forum posts or forum replies, but you CAN do it in straws. When typing a straw, you'll see a large "Attach file..." button below the text box that you are typing your straw into. To attach a file (such as an ASX announcement, or any other relevant file), firstly download the file to your computer or device and remember where you've saved it, then click on that "Attach file..." button while creating a straw and follow the prompts to locate the file and choose it. With mine, it means clicking on the file (within the correct folder) and then clicking the "Open" button. That might vary depending on which operating system you are using and/or which web browser, but it should be fairly straightforward. If you have issues with this not working, try doing it using a different web browser, so - for instance, if it doesn't work within Microsoft "Explorer", upgrade to "Edge Chromium" or try using "Google Chrome" or "Firefox". I use MS Edge Chromium edition (the latest version at this point) and it all works fine. However, I have used Firefox previously and it also worked. These browsers keep updating themselves however, and these updates often cause issues with some websites, so if you suddenly find that an aspect of Strawman.com is not working properly, the best thing to do first is probably to try a different browser. If you have the same issue from 2 or more different browsers, then flick an email to: admin@strawman.com